John Hertzberg.
Phantom Engineer.1999.
Assemblage, 24" x 48". $1500.

Howling like a wolf on a Payne's gray night
The Phantom Engineer smiles with delight
As his cadmium yellow engine steams ahead
Along the mobius strip of the mind
As it slowly unwinds
And the long dark chain pulls tight
On the crimson colored gear
Firmly grasping remnants floating
Along the shoreline waiting
For the first light warming
After a long velveteen night
When Robespierre's smile vanished
Along with his Jacobin suit
Just in time for a final salute
To all that remains
Upon the last card dealt
In a game played out
From the Oregon coast
To a sniper's cruel hideout
Though the train cars keep rolling
Way beyond midnight
When quiet thoughts haunt
A little boy lost
Quietly counting tickets
Way beyond Dawn's cadmium fingers crawling
Across the new beginning repeating
Like so many times before
No need to press his face to the glass anymore
There will be no one coming home
Just phantoms scurrying about
Through nocturnal dreams
And midnight screams
Deep inside his mind
Where boutonnieres and engineers
Lay close to Van Gogh's paint box
Which swallowed up
All of the rainbow colors
And has given them back to Dorothy
Searching for the way back
From such a long journey
Where the evening meets the light